Paper trails
by Darkoslim
Summary: She was beautiful. That much was true. She had this way of making people see that, see that she was just a pretty face. Nothing more, nothing less. That's what everyone thought about the little asari archeologist that lived in two thirty-three B. AU


**A/n: Hi guys! So, you MUST READ THIS! Basically the story is about Alex Shepard a detective on the case of the gory murders that have been happening around the galaxy, in this chapter, I've decided to put you right in the middle of the case where Shepard meets her main suspect, liara t'soni. To clear things up about the whole saren thing, what happened is really just what happened in ME1, but instead, Shepard was not a soldier, but a detective working for C-SEC. Yes, she is still a specter and she did go to the military as explained in the story. But enough of me explaining! That's what other chapters are for, a backstory here! A flashback the** **re! A dramatic as fuck scene that only ends up being a dream! Anyways, Enjoy!**

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She was beautiful. That much was true. She had this way of making people see that, see that she was just a pretty face. Nothing more, nothing less. That's what everyone thought about the little asari archeologist that lived in two thirty-three B. She was quiet, never said more than just a friendly "hello" or "how are you doing?" To anyone who lived in the apartment complex. She kept to herself and came off as just a shy, pretty, little asari that lived in room two thirty-three B.

It seemed like a normal day for detective Shepard, when she got a dispatch to a high-end place like that. Just probably a neighbor mistaking the landlord for an intruder or the owner just moving around some furniture, it got a little too noisy, said neighbor called the police ect. Stuff like that happened all the time, more so than anything "dangerous." That is…before the strangely consecutive murders took place around the galaxy, and sure, of course there were so many murders IN the galaxy, but these murders were timed, thought out and gruesome.

The car radio crackled before a voice sounded off in the quite car. "Dispatch, we have a possible one eighty-nine."

One eighty-nine? A possible homicide, Usually it would be a four nineteen-a dead body. Shepard didn't ever get the pleasure of actually asking the victim who had attempted to kill them, for the sole reason of them being dead. But now? Shepard would catch the murderer, putting an in to this anarchy.

Shepard basically snatched the two-way radio mic off the latch. "Ten-four, and uh..where might this possible homicide be?"

"The presidium apartments...Hm that's odd don't you think? Why on earth would it be there? Do you suppose it was really a possible homicide?" The British voice rambled through the speaker.

Shepard rolled her eyes, every time she picked up a call, Samantha traynor would try to spark a conversation, But Shepard didn't yell at her, she was new and obviously she didn't know the protocol, no socializing on the comm, not that Shepard cared for the rules, but she had been doing this since she was fresh out the academy five years back, she didn't HAVE to follow the rules necessarily. She just wished Samantha would, to save her the time of talking about nothing and rambling aimlessly about her day to day. Sam was a nice girl, a little younger that the red head twenty-nine year old, but Shepard wasn't interested in making friends, she was all about getting the job done, that's how she got this far, besides from a little rule breaking here and there.

Shepard muffled her sigh and replied back, "I don't know traynor, I guess we'll find out when we get there, won't we?"

There was a silence before her voice came back, "Please Alex, call me Samantha, or better yet-sam."

Shepard rolled her eyes. Great, they were on first name bases now? Whats next having wine and cheese in shepard's loft? Of course she would just come over uninvited in attempt to "suprise" Shepard, like they were long-time bestfriends or some shit, catching up while someone Casually mentions the weather, yeah fucking right. This was not going to be another one of those. Kelly chambers was jest as pretentious or better yet promiscuous.

Before Shepard could respond, traynor was talking again. "You know, shepar- I mean, Alex..." Shepard wiped her face with one hand roughly, she did that on purpose. As if Shepard didn't notice the way sam purred her name. "Since this entire possible homicide sounds interesting and I would die to know more, how about we meet up for dinner after work? My treat."

Like it being your treat makes it anymore appealing, don't get Shepard wrong, she thought traynor was attractive, smart, and all around cool, but Shepard wasn't looking for anything right now. And besides she worked with traynor, what if things went salty and then what? She couldn't ignore her, traynors job was literally to talk to Shepard everyday.

"Well..." Shepard pulled into the parking lot of the sky scraping apartment complex. "Let's talk about it after I clock out.. For now let's keep it official. Traynor." Shepard muted the radio before the girl could respond.

With a long huff, Shepard grabbed her hand pistol, latching it into her holster. She rarely used it but who knew? This was a possible homicide, meaning, the killer could still be hiding in the apartment somewhere-which was unlikely, but you would be surprised at the things Shepard has seen. Alex stepped out her car, it wasn't a police cruiser, there was no way she was riding around in one of those, instead she had her own personal car customized, courtesy of the council of course, for all of her hard work, dedication, and saving their asses countless times, not to mention the time saren tried to assassinate them and destroy the entire citadel with operation, "Sovereign." But that was an entire different case that Shepard didn't wish to relive, but needless to say Shepard was given the title of "first human specter." That was cool and all, but something along the lines of "sovereign slayer." Would have been cooler.

That was about four years ago, a year out the academy, she had to focus on the now. Shepard slammed her car door, and smoothened out her classic black fitted, suit and tie, she liked to keep things neat and posed- if you want to be taking serious, you had to look serious. Shepard slid her sunglasses back to hold back her disheveled red hair, revealing her piercing emerald eyes.

She walked down the walkways with pure confidence that she was gonna get the job done, there were a few police cars, two, three, four, of them to be exact. Two ambulances and one fire truck, Shepard never understood what the fire department had to do with a homicide, she had asked multiple people what was the reason but they just replied, "It's just protocol." Protocol her ass, everything just had to be a big deal.

Shepard had never been called to an apartment complex this upscale. Usually, it would be somewhere like omega or the wards that got homicide calls, not the presidium. It was to clean and serene, it was almost like a safe haven and personally, Shepard thought it was the best place to live on the citadel, that is if you were to stay in an apartment.

Looking around, Shepard noticed people looked… a little shook up. Yeah, there was just an attempted murder, but this stuff happens everyday. She guess it's different when you don't see it everyday like Her, she sort of felt bad for these people. They were weak and helpless and didn't know that life was really just a cruel bitch, waiting for it's next victim to slip up and lose their life.

"Shepard! Shepard!"

 _Fuck me…Every time. Every time. This bitch was here every time._ Emily Wong, the scummiest of all news reporters that Shepard had the displeasure of knowing, not only was her decisive words nothing less than annoying, but so was her voice, and her hair and her face. Every thing about her was annoying, either that or Shepard just hated her, the reporter just looked like she wants to be punched in the face.

Alex began to walk faster to the crime scene, she could see the holographic crime tape covering the open door, she was so close, she could almost smell the distress in the air, she just HAD to get over that tape before Emily Wong and her damn vid drone caught up to her.

"Detective Shepard! I need you to answer a few questions!" Emily said only a couple feet away, she must have been sprinting-how desperate.

Shepard threw her head back with an long irritable groan, the red head did an one eighty to face the reporter.

"What can I do for you Ms. Wong?" Shepard said in her most disinterested voice.

"Well, for starters, let's talk about this possible homicide, do you think that all the strange murders that have been occurring have some sort of link to each other? And also, what has the council been doing to decrease the murder rates? More importantly, our agents on the field-which brings us to you Shepard. What have you been doing this entire time our citizens have been murdered in cold blood?" She rambled. This was an intimidation tactic, ask a lot of questions really fast and hopefully whoever you're talking to will fuck up and say the wrong thing, Shepard used it all the time.

Shepard frowned, "I've been sitting around wiping my ass like the rest of you, sorry shits. The council and I are two completely different things, Ms. Wong, I am actually risking my life for the people of the galaxy while they're sitting back, Eating the finest delicacies you could conjure up and telling people what to do when They have no idea what the hell's going on. And as for the recent murders... I believe that all information residing that is classified."

"But-"

"This interview is over." Shepard whipped back around and began walking up the stairs to the door.

Emily Wong smirked, "You know detective, this would all make sense that you wouldn't want to talk about this! With the coincidental murder of your former lover, Miranda Lawson."

Shepard stopped in her tracks, "I hate to say this Ms. Wong, but people come and go. And I see it all the time. It's apart of the job, as for you? Well, I would just stay. It can get a little dangerous when you make accusations as you just did, you know?" Shepard walked into the apartment, where she could still hear that annoying voice in the distance.

"Did you get that? She just threatened me!"

Walking into the apartment for the first time, Shepard looked around the living room. There was no sign of forced entry on the doors Alex had noticed when she first entered, at least the doors didnt seem as though they had been tried to be bypassed. Everything seemed to be intact and not a drop of blood anywhere...how could this be a possible homicide?

"Shepard, what took you so long?"

Shepard's neck craned to look at the person before turning to face them, "vakarian, glad to see I'm not gonna be working with dumbasses on this case- well, not complete dumbasses anyways."

The turian officer mandibles twitched, "Takes one to know one detective."

Shepard scoffed humorously, "Same old garrus, same terrible jokes and just as ugly as when we met." The red head laid her hand on the officers shoulder, giving it a petty pat.

Garrus grimaced, "Haha. Very funny Shepard, almost as funny as you being the councils bi-."

"Alright you two, enough. We have a serious matter to attend to." Tela vasir said as she walked through the holographic police tape. Her gaze fixated on Shepard, "I would expect more from our most popular operative,detective."

Shepard raised a brow, "Specter vasir, what are you doing here?"

Her arms crossed over her chest, she came closer to Shepard. The red head wanted to step away, she hated when people came to close to her, it was definitely a paranoia reflex for her to tense up, just in case the person was walking closer to fight. "As a specter you should know that we are responsible for preserving galactic stability, these murders are getting out of hand and if you're not going to do anything about it then someone has ." She spat the name like it was something pungent.

"Why does everyone think that I'm lying on my ass? I get enough shit from udina as it is, if anyone should be getting yelled at it's that sorry fuck." Shepard rolled her eyes, "Ambassador my ass."

"You have a problem, take it up with council, right now we have to get to work." Tela started typing on her omni tool, "Liara t'soni, archeologist, ninety-nine years old, lives here alone, I've already had this entire place scanned. There's no blood, forced entry or any sign of a struggle..."

"But?" Shepard drawled.

"This liara t'soni isn't in our database, no info on her, her entire file is wiped clean. We did find it interesting, however, that her mother is a matriarch. Matriarch benezia to be exact." Tela finished.

She stroked her chin, "No info,huh?…" Shepard strolled over to the stairway leading to the bedroom that looked over the living room. "Are you sure you didn't over look everything specter?" The red head began walking up the stairs as the two below her looked at her with question. "You don't think it's the tiniest bit odd that her entire file is wiped clean?"

"Please detective, my team is the best on the force. We didn't miss anything…I even went through her things…nothing." She said the last part quietly. Almost inaudible. "Anyways, what's your point Shepard? We have glitches in the systems all the time, people's data isn't safe when you have people in tech that don't know what the hell they're doing."

Shepard took a good look around the room, it was clean and organized-color coded to be exact. _Whoever this t'soni was, was OCD. Extremely._ The bed was made with not a pillow out of place, there was really no sight of anything living ever being in this room, and now that she took it into account, none of the other rooms did either, "True, tela, but let's be honest here. Her mother's a matriarch... And it's likely this liara holds a title just as important…maybe even greater, but what?" Shepard eyed the dresser beside the bed, one of the draws stuck out just an inch or two. Well, that's not very perfect to a perfectionist. "You said you came up her and looked through her stuff?"

"Yeah, so? Just under her bed and in her closet." Vasir said.

" Are you sure you didn't look through her dresser?" Shepard reached into her pocket, taking out one pair of white gloves and slipping them onto her hands. "It would seem that someone was going through one of these draws." Before vasir could respond, Shepard continued. "Although it doesn't seem like a big deal that one of these draws was just precariously hanging out an inch, but something tells me otherwise."

Garrus and tela glared at each other awkwardly, both of them shifted on their other foot before looking back at Shepard. The turian officer cleared his throat, "…Uh, shepard? Need any assistance up there?"

"I might need you to grab specter vasir if she runs away- that is if she is guilty if something." Shepard said nonchalantly.

"WHAT?!" The asari specter exclaimed. "I had nothing to do with this, you cannot be serious detective!" Garrus grew uncomfortable and began to tap his foot, the only sign that what she had said had even been heard. Shepard didn't even entertain her outburst, she simply pulled out the drawer that stuck out, everything in the draw was disoriented, which perked shepard's interest. The draw was filled with the woman's delicates…bras, socks…tiny thongs. Shepard almost blushed at how sensual and private they looked, not to mention…sexy. Shepard cleared her throat and closed the dresser.

"Specter? Would you mind answering a few questions?"Alex began walking downstairs, although she wasn't facing tela, she could tell the asari was looking dead at her, boring a hole through her, or whatever she was trying to do with that malicious stare, Shepard didn't care. She's actually has had a hole in her before- a bullet hole. And a couple at that to be exact.

"Are you kidding? I don't have time for this!" Vasir pivoted on her heel in attempt to walk away, but Quickly, Shepard grabbed her forearm, her grip firm but not rough. It was almost like a silent warning.

"Please don't make this harder for anyone here," Shepards voice was calm and reassuring, she waved garrus over. "I'm gonna have garrus come over here, cuff and escort you to the station, there you will wait for questioning." Shepard grip tighten when she felt the specter resisting. It was a little unorthodox for a specter to arrest a specter, but then again there's saren.

Letting go of the asari, garrus handcuffs soon after too the place of shepard's grips. Tela looked over her shoulder at the human specter with malice, "You won't get away with this! I'll go straight to councilor tevos! She will have you arrested and stripped of your rank!" Vasir yelled.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're in the custody of the law until I question you." Shepard shrugged, "Or until I let you go, it's nothing personal. You're just a suspicious fuck. No offense." The red head took out a notepad from her jacket pocket and began to write, _No sign of a struggle, nor was there any blood…tela vasir is main suspect, although she really hasn't shown any signs of treason to the galaxy's citizens in the past or any corruption, that doesn't mean she can be trusted…_ shepard really didn't have any evidence against vasir, she didn't have any evidence at all, no leads, no clues, nothing! but what she did have was intuition. Ever since saren tried to control her mind with some strange reaper tech, she kind of had this six sense, that's what made her so great at her job, that and her wits, bravery and heart, but all that could only get you so far.

"You're insane! I told the council you should have been-"

Shepard clicked her pen with a tilt of her head, "I'm sorry, what are you still doing here?" Shepard looked at her old friend with confusion. "Garrus. Take her away." Garrus and everyone who wasn't stupid, obeyed everything Shepard said, because well…they were afraid and intimidated by her, it made Shepard sound like a tyrant, but that was far from the truth, Shepard just knew what was best for the galaxy…I mean, someone had to, the council sure as hell doesn't and udina didn't even know the meaning of leadership.

"Shepard don't you think this is a little harsh? She didn't even do anything." Garrus said, "Maybe she didn't do it."

"Maybe she did, maybe she didn't, but what I do know is she WAS looking for something…data maybe? Private intel?, isn't that right vasir?" Shepard smirked. "I'm not an idiot."

"How are you so sure that I was looking for something like that?" Tela shouted, was there no getting to her? Shepard rolled her eyes in disdain. Why couldn't people just except the fact that they were guilty? It's like you knew you did it! Get over it!

"This conversation is over. Garrus take her away." Shepard turned on her heel and made her way through the apartment. That could totally be her new catchphrase, it really made her feel in charge, a little dicky, but in charge. She had no remorse for people's feelings, not really, she wasn't a bitch- she was just honest.

The red head strode pass the decorative, living room into the kitchen, where most murders took place, or that's at least what she though since it was filled to the brim with potentially dangerous weapons. To shepard's dismay, as tela said, it was pristine. Not a fork out of place, a little suspicious…who the hell could keep a place so clean? Yes, Shepard liked to carry herself very well and she was a little obsessed with PERSONAL hygiene but her office? That was a different story.

 _Office…_ this liara was in fact an archeologist. There was a great chance she did have an office. Alex walked away from the kitchen and back into the living area, scanning the room, first she noticed that garrus and tela was gone, secondly, for an archeologist, liara sure didn't like to put any of her artifacts on display, yeah she had a couple pieces of beautiful art here and there, but nothing that looked priceless. Thirdly, she spotted a door just to the left of the stairs, she had noticed it early when she walked in, just assuming it was a bathroom, but now she thought it might just be what she was looking for.

Walking across the carpeted floors Shepard edged closer to the door, she felt this weird sense of compulsion to open the door. Something whispered into her ear telling her to open it, almost begging for her to lunge inside. Once her hand was on the activation pad, Shepard awaited for the door to open, it was such a tedious wait, it was like the ending of a game, right before the you think the main main character is dead, and you can feel the pressure in your stomach, but just then they crawl out from the rubble and everyone gives a knowing smile that means, "Maybe we can win this." Shepard's heart quivered at the hiss of the air pressured door opening before her, she took a step in feeling a weird connection to the artifacts that sat in glass cases on the podiums, some sat on shelves and some of them even floated in the air, weirdly enough. The room was more like a lab that contrasted With the rest of the sterile, but comfortable apartment. The room was lit dimly and it was messy, with papers and data pads scattered around the room, a couple of degrees hanging on the walls, even a doctorate. A doctor and a archeologist, she must be smart…seems she has a lot of interest in science anyway. most of her things lied on the desk where her terminal sat, it wasn't a huge room almost the size of a pretty large walk in closet and with all the mess everywhere it was diffult for Shepard to walk, she carefully walked toward liaras terminal, even though their was an abundance of data pads and papers, one thing stuck out in particular. A leather book, reading on the front cover, Journal, property of LT. Was it a medical journal? A written copy of her theories and discoveries? Or… a presence brushed at her skull something softly saying, "Open it…" she complied, flipping to the first page. The writing was beautiful, almost like calligraphy, and it was written in fine black pen. Damn, Shepard could barely write well with a pencil! She ran a hand over the paper before reading it. Almost feeling as though she could see liara in this very room writing this entry.

 _My name is liara t'soni, and for as long as I can remember, I was always interested in archeology. A few years back when I finished my doctorate, I became infatuated in the study of the protheans, I never really had an interest in things such as, the anatomy or how the body worked or diseases. My true passion was the protheans. Now, as I embark on furthering my horizons on the studies of the protheans I've came up with the theory that maybe they did not just disappear, but they were destroyed…a massive genocide if you will…but, by who? Or rather what?_

Saren was also "infatuated" with the protheans, which made shepard question why liara had became so interested in the protheans in the first place? And her mother was matriarch benezia, sarens right hand man in his operation, "sovereign." Could she had something to do with all of that?

Shepard flipped to a random entry, this book had been fairly old given the date of the final entry, in fact, the date had been set just a week after Shepard tracked benezia down to the frozen planet, noveria, where she killed her. Alex wasted no time reading the page to answer her questions.

 _Given my current status, I have found it quite easy to find out information pretty quickly. Although, this information I was not to happy to hear about…one of my agents has recently informed me that my mother has been killed by the first human specter…Alex Shepard, the name rung bells, not realizing who she was I researched her history on the extranet. She was an orphan raised on the streets of the great megatropolises covering Earth. She escaped the life of petty crime and underworld gangs by enlisting with the Alliance military when she turned eighteen. she was excellent with leadership and partnership skills, Early in her military career Shepard found herself facing an overwhelming enemy, She risked her own life to save her fellow soldiers and defeat the enemy despite the impossible odds, her bravery and heroism has earned her countless medals and recognition from the Alliance fleet. After all of the traumatizing things that happened to her, she still wanted to help the people, in doing so she joined c-sec investigative department, becoming the best operative in the force when she was investigating a rouge specter saren, she exposed him to the council becoming the first human specter…this woman who did these incredible things, and did so much for the people, hurt me out of everyone in the galaxy . I will never get to see my mother again, I did not even get to say goodbye…oh goddess, mother. Why did you do it? Why couldn't you just have.…_

There was little tear stains at the bottom of the pages, it made Shepard feel…terrible. She had always knew that what she did had repercussions to them, but she never gave it any though. She didn't want to, she was scared to. She had lost so much, and had so much blood on her hands, she never realized that the people that she was hurting had the same exact feeling she did when she lost someone dear to her, you never think of the enemy having feelings or ever being capable of love.

I…whoever this Shepard is I just want to know what my mother was like in her last moments-

"Hello?"

That voice, it was so soft and sweet. Too innocent to cause harm to anyone or anything. Shepard wasn't sure if her heart was beating to get out of it's ribcage because, the woman's voice had startled her or because the voice in her mind was very much like the one she had just heard behind her.

She turned slowly, the journal still in her hand. Feeling as though she had gotten caught, Alex began to try and explain herself, but as soon as their eyes locked, a sort of trance overwhelmed the two. Shepard thought asaris were unbelievably beautiful, but this one was different.

 _Wow. I was…not expecting this…her._

Realizing that she was staring, with a blush on her face, Shepard cleared her throat. "I'm sorry. I know I probably shouldn't be in here… I presume you're doctor t'soni?" Alex offered her hand to the asari, following her stare after seeing the shock and horror on the doctors face with her eyes bulging and her mouth almost wide open, Shepard noticed she was looking at the leather book that casually laid in her hand.

Awkwardly, Shepard retracted her hand and instead passed liara the book. The asari took it slowly, she had the most- inappropriate for shepard's to say or think rather, cutest purple blush painted across her freckled cheeks. _Why was she blushing? Damn it, I should've kept reading!_

Shepard rubbed the nape of her neck, "I only read the first page and a random entry." After still seeing liara was still about to damn near have a panic attack, Shepard started again, "Don't worry I didn't read anything secretive or anything… We can talk about all the latest gossip over coffee later!" Liara frowned her brows, completely confused, and to be honest, so was Shepard. She wanted to hit herself. Hard. Then kick herself for sounding like a total douche. _Really alex? The latest gossip over coffee? I'm starting to sound like fucking traynor._

Liara opened her mouth to speak, "I…I do not know what to say." She avoided eye contact, which, Shepard was kind of thankful for, those blue doe eyes made her lose all concentration, she could definitely get lost just by glancing at them.

Alex straightened up. _Come on, get your shit together! Speak damn it. Or don't, either way you're probably fucked._ Shepard coughed, "Well…I apologize for invading your privacy first. Secondly, I'm not just a stranger. I'm detective Shepard, I'll be investigating your possible homicide case and well, thirdly…to get it out of the way because I can see that your obviously tense, I didn't read anything in your journal that was personal what so ever." Alex made a X over her heart with her fingers. "Cross my heart."

Liaras shoulders fell slowly, "Well…alright then… I forgive you, and I am liara t'soni," the asari stretched out her hand. "Nice to finally meet you detective."

Shepard took the hand firmly but she didn't squeeze, feeling the air return to the room Alex spoke. "Finally?" Alex cocked a brow. "You've been waiting to meet me?" A playful smirk on the specters face.

liara felt her face grow warm, as if she had been caught. "I…yes. I have actually been wanting to meet you for quite some time now to be completely honest." Noticing liara had still been holding shepard's hand, she almost snatched it back. Smiling nervously, she continued. "From what I have gathered from my research, it would seem as though when you were on the hunt for the rogue turian specter, saren, he tried to control your mind with the indoctrination of sovereign."

The detective nodded, "This is all true, but could we take this to the living room? It would be a lot to explain and I'd rather do it sitting down." Shepard knew she was here to get the job done, but she felt as though she owed liara this explanation, she did kill her mother after all. Liara smiled softly with a little nod, she led the way to the living room, she took a seat on the white couch, living just enough room for the detective. The long, traditional asari dress, liara wore shaped her body beautifully, almost as if she was poured into it. Shepard even found herself glaring at the asaris voluptuous breast. Alex shook her head as if she could physically shake away her thoughts. _You're a damn pig…pathetic._

Shepard sat down beside liara with her leg propped on her knee. The asari just watched Shepard until she knew she was ready speak. Alex felt a shudder run down her body as she felt the stare almost crawl all over her body. _Was she checking me out?_ She turned her head and sure enough she was staring, almost hungrily.

Shepard cleared her throat, that grabbed liaras attention, her eyes shot to shepard's green ones. "Doctor? Would you like to start now?" Alex said still maintaining eye contact.

Her face flushed and her eyes everywhere other than Shepard, liara spoke. "Yes…now, uh…where was I?" Liara asked, nervously her hands fiddle with each other. It made Shepard relax more, she was glad to she wasn't the only one nervous. She didn't know why, but she felt very anxious around the asari, was it because her intelligence was intimidating or did she just find liara unbelievably attractive? Both probably.

"I think you might have been trying to ask me how did I feel about the indoctrination? Or…" Shepard tried, the doctors eyes bored into her for a brief moment before looking away, it was enough to almost make Shepard break a sweat, Alex loosened her tie a little.

"Right, what I wanted to ask you was, how did it feel?… what I mean is…what was it like for…" liara bit her lip, resisting the urge to lift her hand to her forehead in her own frustration. "You will have to forgive me, I just don't want to mess this up."

Shepard grinned, "Its alright, I think I understand what you're trying to ask," Shepard continued, this time with a more serious tone. "I…when saren tried to control me, I fell victim to the indoctrination…it was hard to resist, and I'm not gonna lie, I was scared- which, didn't help. You start to hear whispers in your head that aren't your own and you think about unimaginable things that make you say to yourself, "What the fuck is wrong with you? How could you think this? Who am I?" After that I started to lose all sense of recognition for myself, I would look in the mirror and stare back at myself blankly, just thinking these inhuman thoughts…Over days, perhaps a week of exposure to Sovereign's signal, the victim stops thinking for themselves and just obeys, eventually becoming a mindless servant. Luckily, that didn't happen to me. Otherwise I wouldn't be here." Shepard offered a sad smile.

Liara looked down at her feet, she felt sorry for even asking Shepard about her past, but she had to know. "Do you…still hear the whispers?"

Shepard had a dead stare as she looked past liaras head, "Yeah, I can't ignore them. They haunt my dreams and sometimes when I'm awake." Shepard eyes flickered back to liara, her eyes full of curiosity and anguish at the same time. "…Your mother was matriarch benezia, correct?"

Liaras perked at the name, "Yes. She was also apart of sarens team…" liara continued sadly, "I still don't know why she would betray our people and the galaxy, and for what? Power? Wealth? Out of fear? That's not the benezia I knew and loved! She wouldn't become a traitor over such silly worldly things!" Liaras voice grew louder, a reassuring hand rested on her shoulder, Shepard gave a knowing look, it calmed the little asari back into her seat. "…or that's at least what I thought. The media, they slandered her name and made everyone forget all the great things she did her people and the galaxy." The doctor felt nudged tears in her eyes. "I hadn't had contact with her in years and her face plastered with word traitor on it was the last thing I saw of her. I didn't even get to say goodbye." Liara clenched her eyes shut, letting the tears cover her lashes and stream down her face.

Shepard stopped herself from wiping them away, instead she activated her omni tool, "I have something for you, it was originally the evidence to the council that your mother was innocent and she was just indoctrinated by sovereign." Shepard's hands flew over the keyboard to find the log.

"She was indoctrinated?" Liara said wiping away the tears.

Shepard played the log, it was staticy, but still audible.

"It's too late for me, I will never be the same again, I was indoctrinated, it was like beating upon the glass as your hands torture and murder... I wouldn't want to live after what i have done…before I go back under the control of sovereign, I wanted to say that I love you liara, I do not know if you will ever hear this, but I would hope detective would show you, I was always proud of you liara, even though you did not follow in my footsteps, I couldn't have asked for a better daughter than you…goodbye. Little wing.

Shepard deactivated her omni tool, "There was more, but It was more about saren and the council. I can send you that log if you'd like…for keep sake."

Liara wiped away every tear that fell, "That will not be necessary, but thank you for the…closure. I never knew she was under the control of sovereign." Liara took a deep breath, her eyes were bloodshot with some tried tears on her face, but yet Shepard had never seen such a beautiful creature. "I'm ready to answer questions about the homicide now detective."

Unsure if she should comfort liara or just move along Shepard cleared her throat. "Could you tell me what happened, first doctor?" Shepard said grabbing her notepad and pen.

Liara breathed deeply, "I was sitting here, going over some research for my latest project on a data pad. When I heard my doorbell ring. Walking over to the door, I found myself asking, "Who could this possibly be? I didn't invite anyone over." I opened the door, and I was greeted with a face of an asari, she attacked me with a blade, little did she know I was trained in biotics or at least she knew, what she didn't expect was for me to be a little advance, I fought her off…I threw her out of my apartment when she lunged at me with knife. Hints the reason why there's no damage done to my home thankfully."

Shepard began to write. _An asari was the attacker, which points to tevos. There wasn't a fight inside the apartment, meaning no damage. The last homicides have been done with knifes, which means that it could have been the serial killer, who kills with knives anymore?_ Shepard thanked that liara fought off the killer, she would have hate to see this asaris guts gouged out all over the floor.

"Can you describe the asari to me? And would you be able to i.d. her if I showed you a picture?" Shepard asked, ready to write.

Liara nodded, "She was blue with purple facial markings on her forehead and cheekbones mostly, some around her eyes like little dots. Liara bit her lip, "I'm sorry this not be much help."

 _Tevos. It was tevos._ Shepard smiled, "That's alright ma'am, I've got enough info and I think I've gathered my conclusions." Shepard stood, liara standing soon after. "Thank you for your cooperation, ms. T'soni. It was a pleasure to meet you." Shepard said stretching out her arm. "We will get back to you once, we have a trail for the suspect."

Liara took shepard's hand and gave it a shake, making sure to let go this time. "You have already figured out who it is?" Liara said in shock.

Shepard hummed, "Almost positive. I've been doing this for a while now ma'am, it's almost gotten too easy."

Liara laughed lightly, It was almost as beautiful as her smile. I have to make her do that again. Shepard blushed at her thoughts as liara began to talk . "I see humility isn't one of your great traits, detective." The doctor said teasingly, Shepard liked the way the title rolled off of liaras tongue, she said it with respect, unlike others. "But then again, for someone to resist the indoctrination, you must be pretty strong willed detective…I'm curious, more like interested to know how you have not gone crazy with all of the events that have happened in your past, your mind must be some sort of multi chambered ancient safe that cannot be decipher."

 _She's interested in me?_ Shepard smirked, "Sounds like you want to capture me and dissect me in a lab somewhere."

Liaras eyes grew bigger, if that was even possible. "What? No! I was just simply saying you would be the perfect specimen for an in-depth researc…that was worst wasn't it?" Liara laid her hand on her forehead. _She was too easy_.

"I was just joking doctor, relax." Shepard smiled.

Liara did actually relax, letting out a sigh in defeat. "And this is why I do not socialize, I have little to any experience with your species detective."

"Well." Shepard shoved her hands in her pockets, "I actually think that it's charming…refreshing…cute."

Liara smiled nervously, trying her hardest not blush, "Thank you detective, I just thought I was more socially awkward than anything."

Shepard opened her mouth to say something, but another voice shouted out. The two hadn't even noticed the hiss of the main door, much less another presences in the room.

"Shepard." Garrus said, walking further into the room. "Thane is waiting in the interrogation room with tela," when he stopped in front of the two he looked between the two. "Am I interrupting something? Trying to score a date are we detective?" Garrus teased.

Alex almost turned beet red, avoiding eye contact with liara. Damn it! Garrus and his big mouth. "We were just discussing the case garrus, nothing more." Shepard loosened her tie, "Ms. T'soni, this is my less than impressive partner, garrus vakarian, garrus, Ms. T'soni." The two shook hands.

"Less than impressive? I don't think you were saying that, that time when there was that shoot out at choras den." Garrus turned to liara, "See Ms. T'soni, after the dust cleared and we though we had taken all of them down, a straggler who had been shot, aimed straight for Shepard, well instead of a headshot the straggler actually got an ass-"

"Alright! That's enough, that never happened and first of all it wasn't there it was in the thigh… it just so happened that it was seemingly close to the uh…" Shepard looked between the two, the asari muffling her laugh with her hand covering her mouth and garrus with his arms crossed and a snide look in his face. Shepard could feel the blood rushing to her face.

Liara let out a giggle, seeing the brave and courageous Shepard act like this was not what liara expected. It was different, and if she dare say…adorable. "For what it's worth I believe you Shepard."

Shepard smiled, "Thank you Ms. T'soni. Again it was nice meeting you, we'll be in contact." Alex winked teasingly. Shepard heard a cough from garrus, "For the case of course." She added.

Liara shuffled on her feet nervously, she stared at the ground with a grin on her face, "The pleasure was mine, detective. I look forward to…speaking with you again."

 _Today, I met the great Alex Shepard. She was not anything like I expected,she wasn't as cruel or calculating as I imaged her being. She did, however, read my journal. I wasn't too upset, although I was a nervous. Upon me finding her reading it, I didn't know what she had read, if she had have saw my other entries, there's not a doubt in my mind that she would have been shocked. There was one thing that I did expect when I met the detective though. She was in fact, as gorgeous as she was in the holovids I had watched of her, and she was almost as interesting as the protheans- maybe even more. My plan is now in effect, and now there was no way out, Shepard would soon find out all the terrible things I have done to grab her attention, but soon she will realize I did it for science.  
_


End file.
